Banishing Demons
by rubycaspar
Summary: Rodney has been rescued from the hive and is trying to think of something - anything - else. His team fill him in on what's been happening. R/K J/T Set in the universe of the Legacy book series, but you don't have to have read the books.


A/N – This is set in the Legacy series universe, so there are spoilers for the first two books of that series in this. If you haven't read those books yet I strongly encourage you to do so... I've never really been one for reading books of TV shows, but believe me when I tell you the Legacy series is excellent. And it's a continuation of the show, which makes it even better than it would be otherwise.

I've been quite lazy about figuring out timelines from the books – in fact I just made one up. If someone knows exactly how much time passes in the book 'The Lost' you can let me know and I might change it if I feel inspired to, but it's not a huge part of the story.

Disclaimer – I own none of the Stargate franchise.

**Banishing Demons**

Things were still hazy for Rodney, and he knew it would take time before he felt like himself again – if he ever did. Snatches of his time on the wraith hive kept coming back to him, and they weren't like regular memories; they carried with them feelings and urges that he wasn't used to or comfortable with. Sleeping was the worst – he'd always hated sleeping in the infirmary, and before he hadn't had anything like the demons he had now. It seemed like every time he closed his eyes he was back on the hive, back in his wraith lab... he could see a wraith's hands – his hands – on the control pad in front of him...

It was mid-afternoon and he was propped up against a stack of pillows, and Jennifer was lying on the bed next to him, tucked up against him. She'd barely left his side in the three days he'd been back, something he'd been very glad of. John, Teyla and Ronon were seated around the bed – Ronon in a low-slung chair to Rodney's left, his long legs stretched out in front of him, and John and Teyla perched on stools at the end of the bed. His teammates had also been something of a feature since he'd been back, though he'd only caught brief glimpses of them. They'd been kept out of his room during his painful and long treatment to turn him back into his human self, and so this was the first time they'd been allowed to sit with him.

He was glad to see them, but the conversation itself was starting to get to him. As with most macabre incidents, they couldn't stop talking about what had happened to him. His transformation, his untransformation, his kidnap, what he'd been forced to do, the two failed rescue attempts before they'd finally got him out... Rodney would be the first to admit that he usually liked to go over missions – especially the horrifying, dangerous ones – in detail afterwards (mostly to remind everyone of some brilliant plan of his that inevitably saved them all) but his heart simply wasn't in it today. In fact it was making him extremely uncomfortable, and doing nothing to help with his demons.

"Can we talk about something else?" He said when there was a brief pause. John, Teyla and Ronon all blinked at him, looking guilty, and he felt Jennifer freeze next to him. He tried to look cheerful to stop them worrying, but he persisted in his request. "Please, anything," he said. They all kept staring at him, so he cast around for a topic. "What's been going on here?"

"We've been looking for you," John said immediately

Rodney rolled his eyes. "It's been five months," he said flatly. "Other stuff must have happened."

They all exchanged glances, and there was silence for a few moments before John spoke up again. "Lorne almost got eaten by a giant squid," he said.

Rodney glared at him. "_True _stuff," he said.

"Um, that is true," Jennifer said. Rodney turned to look at her, and she nodded, looking entirely sincere.

Rodney looked back at John. "You're kidding... a giant squid tried to eat Lorne?"

"It didn't try to eat him – apparently it was harmless," Teyla said.

Rodney must have looked completely at sea, because John quickly filled him in. "Lorne had to take a dive under the city to activate the ice guards, and yeah – there was a giant squid," he said. "Apparently it was quite friendly."

Rodney shook his head, wondering why he'd questioned the truth of John's story – this was Atlantis, after all. Giant squid were nothing. "Okay... what else?"

"There is a flock of pigeons living on the piers," Teyla said. "They were inside the shield when Atlantis left Earth."

Rodney looked at Jennifer again, who nodded.

"Zelenka's made some roosting boxes for them, to protect them from the cold," John added with a smile.

Rodney just quirked an eyebrow – Zelenka had a thing for pigeons.

"We have a new trading partner, and they have the most amazing fruit on their world," John said. "The mess has been baking them into muffins and they're so good."

Jennifer nodded once more. "It tastes likes a cross between a raspberry and a blueberry," she said. "It sounds weird, but they are _really_ good."

Rodney nodded. "Okay." He looked at John and Teyla, but it seemed they'd run out of things to say – for now, at least. So he looked at Ronon instead – the Satedan caught his eye and smirked slightly.

"Sheppard and Teyla are sleeping together," he announced.

Jennifer immediately snorted with laughter. "That one's a lie," she said to Rodney. Rodney, though, had his eyes on John and Teyla – they had both frozen at Ronon's words, identical looks of shock on their faces. He saw them glance at each other and back at Ronon. Ronon wasn't laughing.

Jennifer seemed to notice their reaction too, because she froze. "Isn't it?" She asked.

John shifted a little in his seat and looked at Teyla again – she was biting her lip, and her cheeks had a definite pink tinge about them. They looked at each other in silence for a moment, before John eventually spoke up.

"I told you he knew," he said.

"Was I not supposed to?" Ronon said, sounding and looking incredibly smug. "You guys really aren't as subtle as you think you are."

Teyla covered her eyes with her hand, looking absolutely mortified, and John gave Ronon a dark look. Ronon just grinned.

Jennifer stirred next to Rodney, sitting up a little straighter. "What... I... how long has this been going on?" She demanded slightly shrilly.

John opened his mouth to answer but Ronon beat him to it. "A few months."

Ronon received another dark look before John nodded. "Yeah," he said.

"Seriously?" Jennifer demanded. John started to smile a bit and Teyla lowered her hand, pressing it to her flaming cheek instead. "You two are... you're together?" Jennifer asked. John and Teyla looked at each other again before turning back to her with big smiles. They nodded.

"_Finally_!" Jennifer exclaimed.

Everyone laughed except Rodney, the slightly tense mood broken, and he saw John and Teyla's body language change almost imperceptibly – they shifted slightly towards each other on their stools, and John pressed his knee against Teyla's.

"Why all the secrecy?" Jennifer asked after a while.

"_Attempted _secrecy," Ronon reminded them.

John rolled his eyes at Ronon and then glanced at Teyla again before answering. "We just... it didn't seem like the right time," he said awkwardly.

Teyla nodded. "With Rodney still missing and so much happening... it seemed more prudent to just keep it between us for the time being," she explained. She caught John's eye again and smiled. "I guess..."

John smiled back. "No need now." The two of them stared at each other, smiling widely, until Jennifer broke the moment with a loud "_awwww..._"

They looked round at her, and she grinned. "Sorry, you two are just really cute!"

Teyla blushed again and John rolled his eyes once more, though he was fighting a smile. He looked past Jennifer at Rodney, who hadn't said anything since Ronon's announcement. He frowned slightly. "You alright, McKay?" He asked.

Rodney just smiled faintly. "Yeah," he said. "I'm just... I'm really happy for you both."

Something in Rodney's tone seemed to catch John and Teyla, for they both looked at him in wide eyed surprise for a moment.

"Thank you, Rodney," Teyla said sincerely.

John shifted in his seat. "Yeah, thanks."

Rodney nodded and laid his head back. He closed his eyes and just listened to the sounds of his friends talking – not about him and what had happened, but about pigeons, giant squid and a (not-so) secret relationship. Comforted by the sounds of their voices and, for the moment at least, unplagued by memories of the hive, Rodney fell asleep.

THE END


End file.
